The Great Gatsby

Richly detailed look at America's Jazz Age. Overview about how shallow living such a privileged life affected the characters in different ways. Fitzgerald's writing is smooth and evocative but his characters are poorly realized. His outlook on women is especially bitter. The characters can only see their own lives as worth paying attention to.

This book is definitely well written and successfully pulls you into the debauchery of Gatsby's world. There were no overt descriptions of sexual behavior. What was shocking and difficult for me to believe was the misogynistic depictions of every female character in the novel. Women are treated as silly creatures whose only value is as sexual objects. They are described only in terms of their sexuality throughout the book. No author with any respect for women could have written such a work. It has the potential to do great harm to the sense of self worth of any young woman who reads it. That is why I feel that it is best read by an older audience. The novel is meant to be a satire on the rich lives of the jazz era, but the moral lesson is lost on young audiences, who will be most affected by tone of flippancy and disgust toward women and sexual relationships.